2. Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims. Don’t forget that margarine, one of the first industrial foods to claim that it was healthier than the traditional food it replaced, turned out to give people heart attacks.

3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number – or that contain high-fructose corn syrup. None of these characteristics are necessarily harmful in and of themselves, but all of them are reliable markers for foods that have been highly processed.

4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. You won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market; you also won’t find food harvested long ago and far away. What you will find are fresh whole foods picked at the peak of nutritional quality. Precisely the kind of food your great-great-grandmother would have recognized as food.

5. Pay more, eat less. There’s no escaping the fact that better food – measured by taste or nutritional quality (which often correspond) – costs more, because it has been grown or raised less intensively and with more care.

7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks. Confounding factors aside, people who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than we are. Any traditional diet will do: if it weren’t a healthy diet, the people who follow it wouldn’t still be around.

8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden. The culture of the kitchen, as embodied in those enduring traditions we call cuisines, contains more wisdom about diet and health than you are apt to find in any nutrition journal. Plus, the food you grow yourself contributes to your health long before you sit down to eat it.

9. Eat like an omnivore. Try to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet. The greater the diversity of species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all your nutritional bases.

High quality fats are finally being more widely recognized for the health benefits they provide. Here’s the NY Times covering the news (which wasn’t news at all to our grandparents!).

From the article:

“That the worm is turning became increasingly evident a couple of weeks ago, when a meta-analysis published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found that there’s just no evidence to support the notion that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease. (In fact, there’s some evidence that a lack of saturated fat may be damaging.) “

We’re excited to announce a new vendor at our open house this Saturday.

From 12-2 pm Chef Bill Klar from Angelo’s on Main of West Hartford will be here sampling some “core plan” dishes, discussing upcoming healthy cooking classes we will be sponsoring with the restaurant, and signing-up people for our upcoming prepared foods/private chef program.

For those looking for healthy beef choices it can be confusing shopping at the supermarket. With beef there are many terms thrown around on the labels, and much of it is misleading so that consumers will believe it’s a more natural product.

Here’s a handy guide to common designations you’ll find on labels. Food Renegade gives an easy to read summary of it here.

At TFC we only sell 100% grass-fed beef of the highest standards and at lowest available prices through our bulk foods program. Join the program today!

Now in stock – Magnesium Oil spray from our partners at Ancient Minerals. Most people are Mg deficient and this is a highly effective, and cost-effective, way to absorb in your body: with an oil you spray on your skin.

Mg is an mineral for has a wide range of essential body functions. As Dr Mercola notes, magnesium is found in more than 300 different enzymes in your body, which are responsible for creation of ATP, the energy molecules of your body; action of your heart muscle; proper formation of bones and teeth, promotion of proper bowel function; relaxation of blood vessels; regulation of blood sugar levels, and much more.

Can also be useful for aches, cramps and spasms, sleeplessness, eczema and more. Here’s some testimonials at Ancient Minerals. Some even claim it is beneficial for hair loss.

Good post here from RealFood Forager, reminding us to avoid Omega 6 laden polyunsaturaed industrial vegetable oils, ie oils from soybean, canola, corn, etc. These can also be found in most processed foods you’ll find on the supermarket aisles.

Healthy oil salad dressings are simple and cheap to make – be sure you know the olive oil is pure – or there are several excellent commercially sold ones, including Bragg’s dressings which are available at our store.

Also this article has a good reminder about ensuring your meats have a proper Omega 3/6 balance, which you will find in 100% grass-fed and not in the grain-fed, never mind the hormones and anti-biotics.

Sniffing Rosemary has recently been scientifically proven to improve memory. But wait, this is not a new idea. In 1601, Shakespeare writes his play, “Hamlet,” and Ophelia remarks, “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance: pray you, love, remember.” And then in 1652, English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper wrote, about rosemary: “Helps a weak memory and quickens the senses. The chemical [essential] oil drawn from the leaves and flowers, is a sovereign help…touch the temples and nostrils with two or three drops.”

New product in stock. Primal Pacs! 100% grass fed beef jerky (no sugar, preservatives or junk) with macadamias, dried mangoes and cranberries. What a fantastic protein and energy filled snack to take on the go whether at the office snack or to fuel your outdoor expedition; it’s a modern version of Pemmican: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican

(Dr Allie had two healthy sons at home with the help of an amazing team of midwives. As yet another sad reflection of our overpriced health care system, insurance would not cover the very reasonable fee – just 10% of a typical hospital birth – yet the far more expensive hospital route would have been covered in full).